


Masked

by Oliver_966



Series: Masked Series [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Child Abuse, Coming Out, Drama, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, High School, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstandings, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Past Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Romance, Sokka espetially, Teen Crush, Teen Romance, Teenage Drama, Trauma, Zuko has hella trauma, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, dumbass boys being stupid, seriously the boys are fucking stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24504592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliver_966/pseuds/Oliver_966
Summary: Zuko has only been at this new school in this new town for a few months, but he's already learned that he hates it here and doesn't want anything to do with his classmates. One Halloween party later and he might want something to do with one of his classmates.Sokka just wants to know who was behind that mask so he can ask him out on a real date.*Warnings: Mentions of homophobia, emotional and physical abuse, and mature language*
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Past Jet/Zuko - Relationship, Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), background Aang/Katara
Series: Masked Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1829938
Comments: 125
Kudos: 1292





	1. 'The Whole School' Doesn't Actually Include Me Uncle.

**Author's Note:**

> U _ U This was supposed to be a oneshot and it is now not that. I think it should wind up being about 3 or 4 chapters long but idk. 
> 
> This type of story is a little bit out of my comfort zone, so I hope it isn't too bad. I haven't written something that has a focus on romance rather than a little sprinkled into the background since I was like 14.  
> I'd really appreciate if you let me know how you feel about this after you're done. <3 
> 
> (I promise I'm still working on A Beating Heart of Stone, I just couldn't get this idea out of my head after I binged Avatar)

“Uncle, I’ve already told you, I’m not even friends with any of these kids. Just because ‘everyone at school’ is invited doesn’t mean I should actually go!” Zuko exclaims in frustration, tightening the strap on his blue spirit mask angrily and glaring down at his car keys place on the kitchen table. 

How his Uncle even found out about the Halloween party is beyond him, but his Iroh always seems to know about these things. Someone at the tea shop probably tells him. He’s practically forcing Zuko to go, even though Zuko keeps telling him that he’s not really invited.

‘The Whole School’ generally doesn’t include people who have spoken to maybe 8 other students.

“Well all the more reason to go, Nephew, after all, a new friend is always waiting behind a stranger’s face,” Iroh states calmly, putting a hand on Zukos’ shoulder and giving him a reassuring smile. “You may find yourself pleasantly surprised by your peers if you only give them a chance.”

With a scoff, Zuko turns away, glad he has the mask to hide the embarrassed blush that spreads across his good side. “I doubt that.”

Uncle has good intentions, but Zuko has not had the most pleasant experience with his new school thus far. A few months has been plenty to show Zuko he just needs to keep his head down and try to avoid attention as much as possible for the rest of the year. Then he can graduate and never think of the cursed building again.

(The only roadblock in this plan is Jet, but he can handle that on his own.)

“At least try?” Iroh requests, and Zuko caves. “Alright Uncle…” he shifts “but if no one recognizes what the mask is from I’m leaving.”

His uncle gives a hearty laugh at that, amused by what a theatre snob his nephew (not so) secretly is. 

____

Sokka grins and adjusts the large, somewhat awkward plastic belt he’s donned for his costume. 

Katara blinks as he walks downstairs. “What are you supposed to be?”

He feigns hurt, holding a hand to his heart “I’m wounded. Really and truly wounded. I’m clearly The Boulder.” 

Katara raises an eyebrow “No offense, but you just look like you’re wearing a weird hair tie, and not wearing a shirt.”

Sokka crosses his arms “You just don’t understand because you don’t appreciate the art of pro wrestling. Besides,” he looks her Harry Potter Esq robe and oversized hat up and down “what are you supposed to be.” 

She puffs up “I’m a mage!” 

Sokka smirks and Katara rolls her eyes. “Let’s just go, we still have to pick up Aang and Toph.” and Sokka nods, adding “We wouldn’t want to be late to get your little boyfriend.” with a petulant grin.

Hakoda watches the two siblings banter as they head out towards his son’s car, and calls out “Be careful. And be home by midnight! And no drinking!” which earns him two groans of annoyed agreement.

When he had kids, he had failed to mentally prepare himself for the horror that is having a senior and sophomore living under the same roof. “Teenagers”

He can’t hide his amused smile at the antics of his children as they leave though.

____

Zuko was right about this party. He’s never been so bored and he shouldn’t have come. He could be at home, reading a book, or watching something, or working out, or just anything that isn’t standing around by himself at a party surrounded by people he doesn’t know.

He can’t even sip on the spiked punch for several reasons. Uncle would be disappointed if he came home tipsy, and he won’t admit it out loud but he hates disappointing the old man, he would have to come back here to get his car the next day because he would  _ never  _ drive drunk, and Jet is here and didn’t recognize Zuko behind this mask so it’s staying on, which means unless he tries to sip through the hole in the mask, no punch.

He’s really just grateful that Jet didn’t realize who he is. The less he has to deal with that prick the better.

Still, he feels awkward just standing here, and his skin is starting to crawl with discomfort. He’s not a huge fan of crowds either. He hasn’t spoken to anyone all night and he’s pretty sure no one even knows he’s here. He sinks into his hoodie, his hands fidgeting nervously with the fabric in the large pockets.

He sighs under the mask, imaging that he’s on some sort of stealth mission, and the reason he’s made his presence at this stupid party completely unknown is out of necessity rather than out of a lack of social skills. 

He’ll stay for a few more hours and then go home. Uncle doesn’t need to know just what a failure this has been on the ‘making new friends’ front.

“What’s your costume supposed to be.” a loud voice exclaims into his ear and Zuko jumps. He hears the voice laughing loudly and bristles, turning to the asshole who startled him. 

“Don’t you know not to sneak up on people!” he growls and the boy just laughs harder, his grin lighting up his whole face.

“I was hardly sneaky, you were just too busy brooding to notice me coming over here.” the strangers’ tone is light and Zuko finds himself relaxing slightly. 

“Fair enough…” he calms slightly and pauses to take in the other boy properly and finds himself flushing a little when he realizes he’s talking to the star of the schools’ soccer team, which Zuko had learned at the start of the year, is a big deal in this small town.

Jet had harshly denounced the team as worthless and full of try-hard losers, but Zuko had actually gone to a game in September when he was still only known as the ‘new kid with a scar’ around school. He doesn’t know much about the game, but he doesn’t object to watching hot guys running around and he’d actually enjoyed himself. 

Now he’s looking right at one of those hot guys he had admired.

The kid is popular, and every girl in school wants to date him. Zuko can see why as he takes in the strong face, ice-blue eyes, soft chocolate hair, smooth, blemish-free dark skin, firm muscles that suggest hours of training, and a soft comfortable smile that seems so at home on his face… Zuko flushes slightly at the thoughts, annoyed at himself for letting himself even think something like that.

“Well, what is your costume man?” the boy asks again.

Zuko looks away in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment “It’s a character from the play Love Amongst Dragons. I doubt you’ve seen it.”

The other boy shrugs “I should probably be offended, but you’re not wrong soo,” 

Zuko takes in the costume the stranger is wearing.

His hair is tied up in a strange green band, he’s shirtless and wearing some sort of pants with a loincloth? Over the top. There’s a big green and gold plastic belt over the top of the pants.

“What’s your costume?” confusion tints his voice and the other boy groans “Why does everyone keep asking me that? I’m clearly The Boulder!”

Zuko stares at him blankly and his eyes widen “You know, the wrestler!” 

Zuko does not know and the other boy picks up on this and gasps 

“He’s only the most famous pro wrestler to come along in years. He’s won almost every competition he’s been in.” His tone is indignant and Zuko just shrugs “I don’t watch wrestling.”

“Then your life is incomplete. Wrestling is the best thing in the whole world and The Boulder is the best wrestler to ever grace the earth…” he pauses and looks around, almost as if afraid “Except for my friend Toph. She’s stupid strong, it’s actually kind of terrifying. She’s a freshman at our school.” he looks for recognition on Zuko's face and finds none.

“You must live under a rock or something dude, I don’t know how you haven’t at least heard of Toph. She became the star of the wrestling team before the end of her tryout.”

Zuko shrugs “I’m not really a big sports person.” he admits awkwardly and Sokka nods. “I can’t say I relate, but that’s fair.” 

They lapse into silence for a moment, and Zuko wonders if he should say something when the stranger comes to his rescue.

“I’m Sokka by the way,” and Zuko shifts awkwardly, not offering up his name. He’s managed to become… somewhat well known around school due to a mixture of Jets bullshit and rumors about the giant burn scar on his face. His reputation isn’t a good one, and he doesn’t really want this conversation to end. 

‘As if being all weird like this is going to make this guy want to keep talking to you.’ He can’t help but think, slumping slightly against the wall.

Sokka waits a few moments and finally shrugs. “Okay Mr. Mystery, want to go sit outside with me?” Zuko’s eyes widen under the mask, but he nods despite his confusion. 

They make their way onto the patio of the house the party is being thrown at and plop down on the steps. The cool night breeze makes Sokka shiver a bit, and he wraps his arms around his body. Zuko looks at him and realizes the other boy isn’t even wearing a shirt. 

With a sigh, he pulls his hoodie over his head, his hair sticking up after having been stuffed down under the hood for hours. He’s careful not to knock the mask off and smooths his hair down, making sure it covers his bad ear properly. 

“Here,” he says simply, holding the jacket out to Sokka who blinks. “Oh. Thanks.” his voice is soft and he blushes. Zuko does too, not that Sokka can see that.

Once he’s shrugged the jacket on he looks over at Zuko. “Something tells me you’re not usually a party kind of person.” 

Zuko lets out a surprised laugh “What gave that away?” 

“Well, I figured it out somewhere between you brooding in the corner for hours and you nearly pissing yourself when someone actually spoke to you.”

Zuko huffs in annoyance “You snuck up on me.” he smirks suddenly “Hours? Have you been watching me.”

Sokka’s fading blush comes back full force. “N-No! It wasn’t like that! You were just-” he pauses “Whatever, shut up asshole.”

Zuko can tell he’s just kidding and he smiles, feeling lighter than he has in ages for seemingly no reason at all. 

“I’d say that would be awkward, but with how much you talk I doubt you’d even notice.”

Sokka laughs “Where’s the lie though.” 

They lean in towards one another a bit.

“I’ve never talked to you before. I would remember if I had.” Sokka says softly and Zuko shrugs. “I haven’t been in town for too long. Plus I keep to myself for the most part” 

Sokka hums “Where are you from?” and Zuko sighs “I was living on Ember Island for a while before I came here, but I lived in Caldera for almost all my life.”

Sokka looks surprised “That’s super far! Why would your family want to move from such a big city to a paradise, then to a small town in North Dakota? This place isn’t exactly a tropical island.” 

Zuko looks down, studying the grain of the wood that makes up the deck. “It’s pretty complicated stuff.”

_ “Father, wait! Please! I will never disgrace you again! I am your loyal son-” _

He swallows, brushes the memories away and turns back to Sokka “It wasn’t a big deal anyway, I don’t miss it.”

Sokka seems surprised “You didn’t leave anything behind? What about your friends?”

He misses some things for sure, and he longs for his family to go back to how it once was, but he’s moved on. There’s nothing for him in Caldera anymore, except maybe Mai and Ty Lee, but they were always Azula’s friends, not his.

He simply shakes his head. “I didn’t really have many. I was homeschooled by my mother until a few years before I left, and I didn’t get to know anyone before I moved.”

He doesn’t think of the one person he had thought he’d gotten to know. He doesn’t.

Sokka hums “Why’d you stop being homeschooled?” 

Zuko shrugs “My mother passed away.” he flushes at the confession, recognizing that it’s a heavy thing to drop on someone he’s just met. 

‘This is why you don’t have any friends, you idiot.’

Sokka puts a hand on his shoulder though, and the gesture reminds him of Iroh, but it feels different coming from a hot guy his age than it does coming from his Uncle. “I understand. My mother passed away when I was young too.” 

The darker boy gives a slightly bitter laugh and flashes a watery smile 

“My first girlfriend did too. Pretty rotten luck right?”

Zuko takes that in, his heart giving out at the sad expression on the usually cheerful jock's face.

“That’s rough buddy.” is all he can think to say, and immediately realizes how awkward and tone-deaf it had sounded.

He goes to apologize, but Sokka lets out a surprised laugh. “Yeah, it is.” 

They’ve scooted closer to each other over the duration of the conversation, and now they’re close enough that Zuko can feel the warmth of Sokka’s body. 

They’re looking at each other, Zuko taking in Sokka’s beauty and Sokka trying to catch a glimpse of Zuko’s eyes behind the mask. The silent chill of the night mixed with the drowned out music and warmth coming from the party behind them feels strangely intimate. 

It almost feels like they’re being drawn together by some unknown energy, and suddenly they’re pressed together, and their hands are touching.

“I don’t suppose I can convince you to take that thing off?” Sokka breathes out softly and Zuko shakes his head. 

Sokka goes to ask why when the door behind them crashes open. The privacy and tenderness of the moment shattered. They both jump in surprise, separating.

They look to the door and Zuko takes in the bald kid standing there. He has a strange arrow tattoo on his head and is holding some kind of glider prop with his costume. Zuko can’t tell if the tattoos are part of his costume, but they look real. 

“There you are Sokka!” the kid exclaims and just as soon as he’s said that a blind girl dressed as a zombie or something pops up behind him. They both look young and must be freshmen.

“Your sister’s gonna have your head Snoozles. It’s 15 til and you vanished.” The girl sing songs and Sokka’s eyes widen. “Shit!” he rises to his feet quickly, sparing a look back towards Zuko.

“I’m sorry! I have to go! But we’ll talk again soon?” the boy looks at him, his eyes begging for some kind of affirmation. Zuko just stares at him silently. 

“Come on Sokka!” the bald kid grabs the older boys arm and starts dragging him away.

“Okay, Okay!” 

Sokka spares Zuko one last look before he’s gone and Zuko sits there for a moment. The silence no longer feels comforting, and now seems to be creeping in on him.

Belatedly he realizes Sokka still has his hoodie, which makes him smile softly. 

He sits there for a while, before digging his keys out of his pocket and heading off to find his car.

A failure to make a new friend indeed.

______

“I can’t believe you almost got me grounded for some boy and you didn’t even find out what his name is.” Katara rubs a hand over her face in exasperation.

Sokka whines “I’ve already told you, we had some sort of connection!”

“Sugar Queen you left out the best part” Toph jumps in, “He didn’t even find out what this guy looks like!” the blind girl laughs hysterically and Sokka crosses his arms petulantly. 

“It’s not funny! He was a cool guy when he wasn’t being all mysterious about his identity.” 

Aang chooses that moment to pipe up, “I think it’s kind of romantic. Like Cinderella, but if it took place on Halloween, and was in modern times, and no one was royalty. And if the prince was the one who left Cinderella but still wanted to find her…” he pulls a face “So not really like Cinderella, but it’s still romantic.” 

Sokka hesitantly nods “Well, at least Aang is on my side.”

Toph laughs even harder “He just thinks it’s like one of those cheesy romance movies you both like so much.”

Sokka puffs out his cheeks but doesn’t deny it.

“Maybe you met a spirit, and that’s why he wouldn’t take off the mask!” Aang suggests and Sokka groans, his head thudding on the table they’ve all gathered around. 

He glares at the ugly grain texture the plastic cafeteria tables have. Stupid cafeteria. Stupid school. Stupid party. And especially stupid guy he can’t stop thinking about for no good reason.

He draws the hood of the jacket he accidentally stole over his head in irritation…

Yes, okay he is wearing the mystery guys dark hoodie. It’s kind of creepy, but he was hoping the guy would approach him wanting it back. No such luck… It also smells nice.

“Awww, Sokka got himself a magic spirit boyfriend!” Katara coos with a devious grin and Sokka bangs his head on the table repeatedly.

“This is what I get for eating lunch with my sister and her friends. I could sit anywhere, why do I continue to subject myself to this?” he complains dramatically and Aang pats him on the back.

“I’m sure you’ll find him Sokka. It’s not like our school is that big.”

Sokka’s eyes light up “Hey you’re right! I’ve just gotta search.”

Aang nods, “Yeah, he’s bound to turn up.”

Toph smiles in a way that seems to mock him, and he doesn’t know how she does that but he hates it.“This is bound to be a disaster.”

Katara just rubs her hands over her face again, frustration mounting.

Zuko, meanwhile, is sitting outside the cafeteria, leaning against a pillar, and attempting to blend into the background as much as possible. He doesn’t want to interact with anyone. Why would he?

He can’t help but keep glancing through the cafeteria windows at Sokka though.

He’s being stupid and he knows it. He already decided to get through high school alone. Besides, Sokka wouldn’t want to talk to him if he knew who he was.

Even without Zukos’ reputation, if Sokka knew what he looked like, he definitely wouldn’t have been scooting up so close to Zuko and looking at him like he had been on Halloween. Sokka is well-liked by his community. He’s a star sports player, he’s incredibly attractive, he’s funny, and he’s kind. What isn’t to like.

Zuko is like the polar opposite of Sokka in practically every way. He’s not out of shape, but he’s no sports star, he’s seen as a freak and a horrible person at school, he knows no one could be attractive with a giant burn scar stretched across their face, he’s awkward, and doesn’t know how to make friends.

Still, he can’t deny the fact that Sokka is wearing his jacket, and that makes his throat close up, and his heart pounds too quickly.

Zuko huffs and forces himself to look back down at his phone, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram and pointedly not looking at anyone who walks by. They all look at him, and he feels exposed without a hood to draw up over his face.

His scar is on full display and he glares at his phone angrily as people walk by, staring and whispering to their friends openly as if he can’t see and hear them.

He gets it, there’s a giant ugly burn covering half of his damn face. He knows.

The things people come up with for where it came from both amuse him and secretly, way back in the back of the most closed-off parts of himself, hurt a little.

“I heard he got it when he burned down his old school.”

“Really? I heard he got it when he was a kid.” 

“Oh yeah, didn’t he like, burn his home to the ground with his whole family in it?”

“I heard that too! I wonder what actually happened”

Every conversation sounds the same, the rumors of the atrocities he committed ranging from him having been the ruler of a gang that was ambushed, leading to him getting his burn from a flamethrower to him having burned down an orphanage…

Okay well, no one has actually said that last one, but the gang member one is popular.

He knows it’s a weirdly shaped scar, so it’s only natural people are speculating. The rumors weren’t even that bad until people saw him hanging around Jet.

He hadn’t known what kind of person he had been dealing with at first. He had thought he had made his first friend at this school…

He’s always been so naive.

“Heyy Zuko.” a voice drawls.

He growls. ‘Speak of the devil… or think of the devil in this case.’ he thinks in annoyance.

“What do you want Jet?” He looks up at the brown-haired boys’ smug face. 

“I’m hurt. I thought we were pals. Chums. Friends if you will.”

Zuko stands and scoffs. “I don’t feel like dealing with this shit today. What do you want?”

Jeet shrugs “Well, what I want is a quick fuck in the bathroom, but somebody’s cranky. What’s got you all pissy.” with a roll of his eyes he gestures at Zuko, who tenses in anger.

“I’m not having sex with you again Jet. Why the fuck would I want to do that after what you did?” 

Jet just shrugs “Because I’m a good fuck, and you don’t exactly have many options, do you Zuko?” he gestures around the school. Zuko knows what he’s referring to, and Jet isn’t wrong that no one else here would want to sleep with him, but he doesn’t care.

“Besides” Jet continues “With a face like that, you might never have options. I won’t always be around you know. I’m going places after high school.”

Zuko rolls his eyes. Jet is convinced his band, The Freedom Fighters, is going to be famous because they have a few thousand subscribers on youtube. 

Even when Zuko had thought they were friends, he was skeptical of Jet’s plan to take his band on tour after high school. Back then he had pledged his support, but now he just laughs cruelly.

“Sure you are dickwad.” he turns and starts to walk away, but Jet grabs his wrist tightly, hissing in anger “You don’t fucking walk away from me.”

Zuko can’t help the flinch and curses himself for showing weakness. He knows Jet will latch onto it. He stumbles forward as Jet pushes him and he growls. 

He turns to snarl and say something to defend himself, but Jet is already walking away, throwing a cocky smirk back at Zuko as he goes.

Everyone is watching, probably hoping for another fight between him and Jet but he just growls, grabs his backpack, and stomps off.

He glances in the cafeteria and sees everyone is watching. He seeks out Sokkas’ eyes and flinches away. Sokka is watching him with the same expression he gets from everyone else in this stupid school.

Fear and disgust. 

He deserves it but it still hurts. Why does he keep putting so much faith into strangers? Friends just waiting to be made or whatever his Uncle had said on Halloween his ass. Other people are useless and he doesn’t need them. 

He grits his teeth and stomps a bit harder, making his way back in the school, sneaking past the security guards that are meant to keep students from wandering around during lunch, and finds a secluded bathroom. 

He locks himself in a stall and double-checks that he’s along before letting out a shuddering sigh. He’s so angry, and he’s so lonely. He knows he is.

When he had started school here, he had tried to approach people, but he was a bundle of nerves with no social skills. He’d been failing horribly at making friends when Jet had approached him in early September. 

He had thought Jet was his only friend for an entire month. He wasn’t Azulas’ friend, or someone who talked to him out of a legal obligation, or someone who was using him to get his dad a better standing in his father's company. 

He’d really thought he had finally found a friend.

Zuko feels so stupid looking back. Why would anyone willingly approach the new freaky kid with a fucked up face? He should’ve known there would be ulterior motives?

He had publicly associated himself with Jet, drawn in by his smooth charms, wit, and good looks. He had gone to Jets foster home and he had slept with Jet. If Jet had kept the facade up for another month or two maybe, Zuko would have probably spilled all his angsty life bullshit to him.

Jet is well known around town for being a troublemaker. He and his friends have been arrested, and not for minor things like possession of weed. They’ve mugged people. They’ve hurt people in the community Zuko had secretly hoped to join.

The moment Zuko became associated with Jet, he had been branded a monster by his peers, and he had a scary, angry-looking scar to go along with the reputation he unknowingly made for himself at school. 

Zuko had been partnered with a girl in Physics in early October for a project and she had responded to his awkward smile and wave with a glare. Zuko had been taken aback by her hatred and as they were wrapping up their project he finally asked what he’d done to her. 

She had glared and responded, “Your friends broke my dad’s leg and stole everything he had a few months ago, so you tell me.”

Zuko had been shocked but quickly thought to himself that she must be mistaken.

In History class later that day, Zuko confronted Jet about it. Casually asking if his friend had actually mugged somebody. It had seemed so absurd to him at the time he had phrased it as a joke. 

Jets' face turned serious though. “Zuko look, I don’t expect someone like you to get it, but I’m alone, and all these people, they don’t even care. Everyone in this town, no everyone in this fucking country has failed me, so I take what I need from them.” Jet shrugs. “It’s survival of the fittest.”

Zuko had sat there in shock “So you just… what steal from and hurt people? That haven’t even done anything to you?”

Jet had scoffed, “I knew a sheltered rich-boy like you wouldn’t get it.” the teens’ voice had hardened “You’re just like your damn father.”

Zuko had flinched back in shock “What?” 

Jet had just smirked “Yeah, I recognize you. You’re that rich CEO guys son. The one who recently got sued for workplace discrimination and harassing a bunch of female employees?”

Zuko had swallowed thickly. At the time he’d thought he might be sick. “J-Jet I-”

Jet had cut him off. “I’ve known who you are this whole time Zuko, and I’m not actually your friend. I was only fucking around with you to get the satisfaction of hurting the son of the guy who fired my mom. ”

Jet had glared at him and sneered “It’s all your fucking dads fault that my moms an addict now. Your family got me stuck in the system and you think I want to be buddies with you?”

  
Zuko had blinked in confusion, but before he could say anything else, Jet had lunged at him. He was thrown off the desk and instinctively punched Jet in an attempt to defend himself. He rolled Jet over and hit him again, and then Jet had kneed him. Zuko had clumsily fallen over and anger had overtaken him. 

They had rolled around on the floor for a while, and security came in to intervene. 

Zuko had panted as he was dragged away from Jet. He’d looked at his terrified classmates, who were lined up against a wall of the room fearfully, and slumped in defeat.

He should’ve known better. He knows how to take a beating and he hates himself for not diffusing the situation. Uncle taught him to reign in anger and not lash out and he’s a failure, as usual.

He hadn’t told his Uncle exactly what happened, but his uncle seemed to have recognized it was something that opened a not yet healed wound again.

Zuko had seen the disappointment his only family member had been unable to hide and he had gone up to his room, refusing to leave or eat for days.

Now he’s seen as a complete maniac in school, fueled by rage and destruction. 

He’s a deranged gang leader and a baby killer and god only knows what else.

He doesn’t care though. He can deal with Jet harassing him all the time, and he can deal with everyone hating him, and he can deal with being a disappointment to the only family he has left.

He can.

He slumps down onto the bathroom floor and is horrified to find tears welling up in his good eye.

He shakes his head and mentally chants “I’m okay. I don’t care. I’m okay. I don’t care.” over and over again.

He almost wishes he were back on Ember Island in the hospital again. At least there he could just ignore everyone for days on end. Sure there had been therapists trying to fix his brain and people trying to force him to do physical therapy exercises, but they were easy enough to tune out.

The bell rings, signaling class is resuming. He sighs, wipes his face off, and steels himself. He still has to get through the rest of the school day, his homework, and his shift at Uncles tea shop.

_________

Sokka has asked around the entire school, and he has found no new guy from Caldera who is into obscure theatre and is super awkward. It’s been three weeks since the party and he swears he must have asked everyone in the entire building, of course with the exception of Jet and his lackeys.

How that absolute asshole got anybody to blindly follow him is beyond Sokka, but he just stays away from all of that. Really Jet should be in prison, but his foster mom is a lawyer and he’s white so he’s gotten away with a stupid amount of shit since he came to town a few years back.

There’s also scarface, but Katara would kill him if he went anywhere near that guy. His sister is a smart cookie, so of course, she skipped a few years in some subjects. History is one of them, so she had unfortunately been there for the huge fight Jet and Zuko got into.

She had been shaken by it, and Sokka hates to see his sister look all scared. She had tried to hide it, but Sokka could tell it had freaked her out. She said that both boys had been vicious, and she almost thought they might kill each other.

Katara hates scarface more than most. She already hated Jet after the time he had led her along in order to get her to help him cheat on a test, and scarface was now lumped into that small group of people his little sister would castrate without a second thought.

So yeah, he isn’t going anywhere near the angry kid, because if he was spared by scary dude, Katara would kill him.

He’s lamenting his lack of luck on the car ride home, and Katara looks at him in concern. “Sokka… you’re becoming kind of obsessed with this, aren’t you? I mean you barely even know this guy right?”

Sokka shrugs “Yea but I feel connected to him somehow. I don’t believe in Aangs spirit mambo jumbo but… I don’t know I really like him”

Katara sighs. “I know but… I think you should consider the possibility that he doesn’t go to our school or something.”

Sokka hunches in on himself, focusing on the road and saying nothing. The rest of the short ride home goes by in silence. When they pull into the driveway they both hesitate for a moment. Turning to her with a frown that looks out of place on him Sokka sighs. “I know you’re right Katara. I’ll let it go...” 

She nods. She doesn’t can tell he’s hesitant, but she trusts her brother to look out for himself. All she says is “Okay, but please don’t get hurt over this.”

Her brother grins bitterly “I think it’s too late for that.”

She doesn’t get it. Sokka never gets like this. He hasn’t even dated casually in years. Not since he sat in the hospital and watched Yue die. Now he’s suddenly obsessed with some strange boy whose face he hasn’t even seen.

She doesn’t get it and she’s concerned. 


	2. You've Got a Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko attempts to talk to Sokka and thinks about his childhood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> U _ U I definitely need 4 chapters oops.   
> I'm kind of on a roll with the whole writing thing all of the sudden O _ O   
> Like me? Uploading consistently instead of taking a 6-month break. Shocking stuff truly. 
> 
> I'm not entirely satisfied with how this came out, but I wanna finish this out anyways fsffdgfgsf

Zuko stares at his laptop, his blankets drawn over his head and all the lights in the room turned off. He’s been staring at the Chrome homepage for a solid 15 minutes and he’s content to keep staring at it. 

‘I should just turn the computer off. This is stupid.’ he chews on his lip.

He just wants to know though. 

Hesitantly he reaches out and shakily types ‘Am I gay?” into the search bar.

A few articles pop up and he scrolls down a bit. He spots a quiz and nervously clicks the link.

He wishes his mother was still alive. She would’ve known how to help with this. She would’ve told him what to do about these intrusive feelings that pop into his head when he sees some of the boys at school. 

He goes through the quiz, determined to figure this out. 

Every question he knows what answer his father wants him to pick and knows which one he’s actually going to pick. He can tell which answers are going to get him labeled gay, but he also knows deep down that he is gay. He knows he wouldn’t even be here if he wasn’t, but he has to check, know for sure somehow.

He has no interest in girls, at least not the same way he’s interested in boys. He doesn’t talk to anyone at school other than Azula and her friends who are a year below him. When you’re in the 7th grade that’s important. He’s 13 and his sister is 12 so they can’t really be friends…

Also, Azula scares him a little. 

She always has, but ever since the accident she’s been different. Zuko isn’t sure if she’s okay or not. She was in the car with mother when they were hit by the drunk driver, so he doesn’t blame his sister for being a little bit… off these days. He’s worried about her, but they haven’t been close in years. Not since father found out that she’s a genius. Zuko doesn’t get it, it’s not like his stupidity will  _ infect  _ her.

She is off though, and Zuko has never known how to talk to her, even before everything turned all bad.

He’s getting distracted. He needs to focus.

He has no interest in girls. But, he can’t help but look at the boys in the locker room though. He tries to avert his eyes, but they’re always drawn in. He’s never felt like this before now and it scares him.

He knows what being gay is from his father’s rants. He hates ‘homos’ and Zuko finds himself nervously agreeing with his father’s angry words at meals. 

His heart sinks as he looks at the results of the quiz. He knows it’s true. He quickly closes the tab and clears his history. He shoves the laptop aside and sits there with his head in his hands, tears falling freely in the dark quietness of the night.

Father can never know. If Father finds out he’ll be kicked out at best.

The 13-year-old boy rubs at his bruised arm and doubts that he would escape unscathed if his father learned this particular secret.

_____

Zuko doodles a little angry man in the corner of his finished homework. His earbuds are stuffed in his ears and he drums his fingers along to the song playing.

He’s bored.

History class will do that, especially when there’s a sub.

He hates this class, not because of the subject but because of the people in the class.

He’s actually a bit of a history buff if he’s being honest. He likes to fully understand the historical context of plays he’s watching, and he likes to watch plays from a variety of different places and time periods.

So long as they aren’t being performed on Ember island. Those actors were terrible and completely butchered some of his favorite works. Thank god for bootlegs. What would a theatre nerd do without all the best works being uploaded as “Angsty emo slime tutorial | Try not to cry challenge.” 

He doodles a spirit from Love Amongst the Dragons and smiles slightly at the thought of his favorite play.

He drops the smile when he feels the glare of the sophomore girl across the room. 

At least Jet is absent today.

He doesn’t know why that girl hates him so much. No one in the class likes him after the big fight incident, but that girl genuinely despises him.

He’s never even spoken to her so he doesn’t get it, but he brushes it off.

“Come on Katara, stop worrying about him and help me with this.” a girl with short hair pleads and Zuko finds himself halfway tuning into their conversation without really meaning to.

“Sorry Suki, I’m just stressed about my brother.” the younger girl sighs. The older one hums in sympathy “Is he still upset about that guy with the mask.” 

That gets Zukos’ attention. Now that he thinks about it, Sokka does sit with the younger girl pretty often at lunch.

“Yeah. He’s really bummed about it. I haven’t seen him interested in anyone like this since… well, you know.”

Zuko frowns, recalling the jocks’ admission about the death of his first girlfriend.

“Maybe it’s a sign that he’s ready to move on.” Katara continues hopefully. “I can’t think of any other reason to obsess over a stranger like this.”

Zuko flushes and tries to go back to focusing on his doodles. The bell should be ringing soon. He tries to calm his racing pulse as he sits there.

‘Sokka thinks about me?’ a hopeful part of his mind whispers. ‘I should talk to him.’

He bites his lip. Sokka can only think of him like that because he hadn’t realized who he was talking to. 

‘Not only are you completely hated in school, but you’re ugly’ he reminds himself, thinking of the scar. ‘Plus you’re a mess.’ he thinks about his father ‘Why would you want to drag someone that perfect into your fucked up life? That’s so selfish.’

He can’t help the blossom of hope though. Maybe Sokka had really enjoyed his company enough to overlook everything. 

Zuko hasn’t even tried to date since he was 14 and hasn’t really had a friend since then either. Only Uncle, but he’s like a father to him so that doesn’t count.

He fidgets with his pencil as he becomes lost in thought.

Maybe he can become friends with Sokka. Maybe even something more. 

It’s wishful thinking. Sokka would take one look at him and see how hideous he is inside and out. The jock would probably be embarrassed to have thought of someone like Zuko like that.

There’s a small hope planted in his secretly romantic heart though and he can’t help but let it blossom. ‘What harm could come of trying to talk to him?’ he asks himself.

_____

A lot of harm. 

Sokka’s sister and friends are overprotective, and they’re terrifying.

A few days after overhearing the conversation between Katara and Suki, Zuko gathered his nerves and decided to wait for Sokka by the boys’ locker to try and talk to him after school.

Sokka doesn’t even get a chance to see him because his horrifying little group of underclassmen friends stomps up so quickly Zuko wonders how they even noticed he was here that fast.

“What do you want with my brother?” Katara growls and his eyes widen. 

He notices that at her sides are the boy with the arrow tattoos on his head and the blind girl. The other girl from his history class, Suki, is close behind them.

He takes a nervous step back “I just wanted to talk to him about someth-” he’s cut off quickly “What could someone like you possibly need to talk to him about?” Katara is pissed and Zuko is intimidated.

“I’m not looking for a fight I ju-” Katara pushes him back and he stumbles. “No. There’s no reason for you to harass my brother and I won’t let you.”

He swallows and nods “Right, Okay. Sorry to bother you.” he turns and flees awkwardly. “Idiot why didn’t you even try to explain yourself” he hisses under his breath, running his hands over his face in humiliation. 

Well, at least he can officially add another interaction with a classmate who isn’t Jet to the short list. It went about as well as the others.

He heads out to the student parking lot to go home in defeat. 

He’ll try again. He just needs to catch the jock alone and at least try to explain himself.

It’s all so complicated and muddled, and he knows he’s made plenty of mistakes with how he handled the thing with Jet, but he’s not as bad as people think.

_____

Zuko smiles shyly at the other boy. “I’m Zuko.” he introduces, shifting on his feet, ignoring the slight pain this causes. 

Apparently he doesn’t ignore it very well as the other boys face twists in concern. “I’m Kuzon.” he hesitates “Are you alright?”

Zuko nods “Yeah, I just fell down the stairs the other day. You know what I’m like.” he gives a forced laugh and the other boy nods. 

It’s not entirely a lie. He had gotten in his fathers’ way the other night, and he was already in trouble for getting worse grades than Azula  _ again _ . His father had been angry and roughly pushed him out of his way, directly towards the flight of stairs that Zuko had proceeded to tumble down.

‘I really am lucky that father puts up with me. I’m so useless.’ he thinks to himself as he recalls the undignified way he had screamed as he fell. 

“You’ve gotta be more careful.” Zuko nods, embarrassed, and their eyes meet.

Zuko knows he’s screwed then and there.

He’s not exactly in love, just infatuated, but he’s 14 so he doesn’t understand that.

_____

Zuko groans loudly and puts his head in his hands. The frustration is starting to make him angry, and he brushes off the Uncle shaped part of his brain that says he should go make himself a calming tea. He can’t even make decent tea despite Iroh’s best attempts and he can’t ask for one because Uncle is playing Pai Sho with his boring old men friends.

He’s been trying to get a moment alone with Sokka for  _ months  _ now and he just keeps failing. 

He’ll wait around where he knows the guy will be, his locker, soccer practice, a class he saw him coming out of. It’s like the Jocks friends are tracking him or something! Every time he gets near Sokka his sister or one of her friends is there to scream in his face. 

He leaves when she asks him to every time. He always  _ intends  _ to explain himself, but then he’s being yelled at and anxiety bubbles up and he just leaves. He hates himself for how much someone yelling at him still triggers some primal fear in him. He always finds himself unconsciously moving to cover his scar like a child.

He just wants to talk to Sokka and he can’t get a single word in.

Today he had the brilliant idea to walk up to the group at lunch, but before he could even get a word in Sokka had puffed up and yelled “Hey! My sister says you’ve been bothering her!”

Zuko slams his head down on his desk at the memory. He’d just stood there, gaping in confusion instead of defending himself or explaining himself.

Sokka had growled and said “You leave us alone. I know you think you’re real tough cause you have that big scary freaky scar, but I’m not scared of you. I’ll take you any day and win, so piss off.”

“Why did I just leave?” Zuko asks no one in particular, glaring at the hand-carved blue spirit mask he’d worn to the party. “Why this.”

He doesn’t care if he’s whining, this is annoying.

Now that he thinks about it, it’s probably for the best that he hadn’t had a chance to explain himself. How lame would it sound to say “Oh yeah, we talked for like half an hour at a party like a month ago, and I’m still thinking about you. Also, that hoodie you’re wearing is mine, but you can keep it”

Why does he never think anything through? He’s got to be the dumbest person on the whole planet. “I’ve gotta give up. This is useless.” he groans, feeling like a complete fool.

He hears the door open downstairs and sits up. He wouldn’t want Uncle to catch him moping and offer him a proverb.

“Zuko! I’m home!” his Uncle calls “and I brought Ice Cream! Come down and share one of life’s delights with an old man!”

Zuko laughs lightly in a way only Iroh can make him, “Coming Uncle!” 

He better have gotten him strawberry.

_____

_ “You asked Zhaos’  _ **_son_ ** _ on a  _ **_date_ ** ?” Father hisses the moment the front door clicks behind him. 

Zuko jumps back, eyes widening “Wh-What? No! I wouldn’t do that Father! I’m not gay.” 

His father stares down at him, cold anger raging behind his eyes. 

“Not only have you brought shame onto your family, my company, and me, but you dare to lie to me about it?”

Zuko shakes his head and pleads “Father no-” his voice quivers and he is cut off.

“I have been kind to you. I have given you a home, an education, everything you need. You have disappointed me at every turn. Your grades are mediocre at best where your sister excels. Despite how utterly useless you have proven yourself, I kept you around.”

He tries to step back but finds himself against the door he had just come in through.

‘How did he find out?’ he had asked himself desperately. He knew the answer. He had thought he and Kuzon had something, but the boy had recoiled when he had asked if he wanted to go on a date. 

Zuko had been heartbroken, but that feeling pales in comparison to the fear he feels now. Kuzon knew how his Father is. How could he do this to him?

“Father Zhao’s son l-lied, I w-” 

“Zhao’s son has proven to be a respectful, talented, intelligent young man who is impervious to your moral attacks. I trusted the information he provided, and your reaction has affirmed the truth of his statements.”

Zuko shook his head “No! I would never disgrace you-” he’s cut off again “All you’ve done since your birth is disgrace me boy!” 

Ozai’s hand snaps out and grabs Zuko’s wrist, and suddenly he is being dragged out of the entryway of his home. “Father! Please have mercy! I didn’t!”

His father says nothing and Zuko stumbles as he is pulled roughly across the house. 

He is thrown to the floor of the kitchen and winces. His whole body still hurts from when his report card came in the mail.

He crawls back and breathes heavily, panicking, but prepared for a beating. It doesn’t come for a moment and he opens his eyes a bit, surprised to see he is in the kitchen. His father is standing above the stove angrily, the fire of one of the burners sparking to life as the man twists the knob.

The flame puffs up. The gas stove his mother had requested when they had the kitchen remodeled years ago burning hot.

Zuko swallows in fair and hesitantly whispers “F-Father?”

Ozai lifts the grate from the burners and turns to him, throwing it aside and walking towards him again. Zuko flinches at the sound of the heavy metal bouncing against the tile floor.

“Please” 

He winces back as he is kicked harshly. He knows this though. He’s used to this. He’s not used to being roughly grabbed and dragged towards the stove.

He struggles and begs his father to stop.

“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.” his father growls as he holds Zuko by the flame. The boys eyes stare into the fire in fear. The heat touches his cheek softly, and he struggles away from it. 

“Father, wait! Please! I will never disgrace you again! I am your loyal son-” he is cut off by his own screams, which echo through the mansion, louder than he thought possible. 

_______

Zuko is zoning out when his Uncle gets his attention“Nephew!” the man gestures his head out to the main room of the tea shop “There’s a customer”

He jumps up and smiles apologetically “Sorry, I was distracted.”

His Uncle just smiles and pushes him outside.

Zuko stumbles out into the main room with an indignant cry of “Uncle!” 

He huffs and straightens out, smoothing out his apron and grabs his notepad from the pocket to take the customers’ order.

It’s Christmas break so he’s working during the day for once rather than the evening. It’s a much more boring shift. In the evening the shop fills up with people all the regulars. His Uncle has a ridiculous amount of friends for such a small town. Sometimes it’s annoying because some of the old people act like Zuko is their grandson or something, but he doesn’t mind much.

Looking over at the customers he is meant to be waiting on right now he jumps.

It’s two of Sokka’s underclassmen friends. Katara and baldy.

“Y-You!” he squeaks in surprise.

Katara’s wide eyes narrow into a glare.”What are you doing here?”

Zuko scowls “I work here.”

Katara just scoffs “Why would you need a job. You’re one of Jet’s friends. Just steal from someone.” 

Now it’s Zukos turn to glare. “I would never steal from an innocent person!” 

Katara goes to say something but Uncle pops out of the kitchen. 

“Nephew what’s going on?”

Zuko smiles sheepishly at him. “Nothing Uncle. It’s just some kids from school.”

Uncle smiles over at them “Oh? Are you two friends with my nephew?”

The two kids look at him awkwardly and the bald kid nods “Umm, yeah kind of.”

Uncle gestures for them to sit down “Wonderful! Your tea is on the house.”

Zuko sighs but knows better than to argue with his uncle about giving out free tea. The two kids try to argue, but they’re brushed off by Uncle.

“Zuko, go get your friends a cup of jasmine.”

Uncle sits down with them and starts chatting with the uncomfortable teens. Zuko rolls his eyes but heads into the kitchen. 

Kids from school never come here! Only old people come to the Jasmine Dragon. So why did the two kids who seem to hate him the most have to come to his sanctuary?

He pours the tea aggressively and brings it out. 

Uncle seems to have gotten the two to warm up to him. Zuko wishes he had social skills like Iroh does. People are put at ease with his mere presence. All Zuko’s presence does is piss people off.

“Oh, I’ll leave you kids alone then. Zuko, make your little friends feel at home.” he winks and disappears behind the curtain separating the kitchen from the restaurant. 

Zuko just stands there awkwardly.

“Your uncle seems nice.” baldy says.

“Yeah, he’s pretty great.” Zuko agrees awkwardly.

“Aang, don’t talk to him!” Katara hisses and Zuko cringes

“Aww, why not?” 

“Yeah actually-” Zuko interrupts nervously “I don’t really get what your deal is with me?”

Katara growls “Because you’re friends with Jet.”

Zuko frowns “No I’m not. He literally attacked me? You saw the fight?”

Aang looks at him curiously “But you were always hanging out when you first came here.”

Zuko shrugs “Well yeah. That was before I found out what kind of person he is. Who steals from innocent people when their family has plenty of money? And he somehow thinks hurting random people is fighting the system? As if the random people he’s beating up in alleys have any more to do with the system than him. That’s fucked up.”

Katara opens her mouth to argue but then blinks “What?”

Zuko looks at her. “I know everyone thinks I knew about all that when I started hanging out with Jet, but I had just moved here. He was just the first person to talk to me.” he sighs and runs a hand through his hair “I know I handled that fight in class poorly but I was just shocked when he attacked me.” 

Aang and Katara stare at him in surprise. 

“Why are you trying to harass Sokka then?” Aang asks and Zuko’s good side turns bright red.

“I was- Well-” he stammers, “I wasn’t trying to  _ harass  _ him. I just wanted to-” he covers his face with his hand “...talk.”

Katara groans “Seriously? You just had a crush on him this whole time.”

Zuko flinches “N-No!” 

Aang raises a brow “Dude it sounds like you had a crush on him.

“Well I didn’t” he huffs. “Enjoy your tea.” he all but sprints back to the kitchen. His Uncle smiles at him and he smiles back.

“It is good to see you making some friends.”

Zuko rubs his arm and nods “Yeah. That.”

He peeks back out every so often at the two. They’re clearly on a date so he leaves them alone. Eventually, they leave and he goes to clear the table. Lying there innocently is a little slip of paper with an Instagram @ and the words “Good luck with Sokka!” in blocky handwriting, and in much neater handwriting underneath “Don’t be too gross with my brother.”

He takes the paper in his hands shakily and a wide smile takes over his face. Maybe he does have a chance after all? Why else would they have given him this? He guesses it could be a prank, but it’s not like his reputation could sink any lower than baby killer anyways. 

_______

His Uncle sits at his bedside. 

“Where am I?” he croaks, staring blankly at the wall. 

“I had you Flown to a hospital on Ember Island Nephew. They have the best medical equipment of any hospital within 400 miles.”

Zuko says nothing for a long time, just staring blankly at the wall.

“I can’t see or hear on one side.” he finally remarks.

His Uncle makes a noise of agreement “Yes, the doctors said that might happen. It shouldn’t be permanent.”

Zuko feels a bit of dull relief, overshadowed by the complete numbness he feels. 

“He burned me. He stuck my face in fire.”

Uncle sighs. “I know Nephew. I’m so sorry.” 

Zuko is silent again, looking over at Iroh. Slowly his blank expression crumbles and tears gather in his eyes. “He burned me- I begged him for mercy and he-” Uncle cuts him off with a soft hug. 

“Shhh” he hushes him “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Zuko shakes his head, but leans into the hug regardless, shaking with sobs.

_______

He glares at the empty message box. He’s been trying to write the perfect text for days. School starts back in a few short hours and he’s had Sokka’s number almost all break.

He’s practically filled notebooks with drafts for texts to send. Should he reveal who he is from the party? Or say something witty? He’s so bad at this. His attempts to come up with a cute message flip flop between cheesy shit he  _ maybe  _ stole from a play, pick up lines he definitely stole from google, and snarky comments about the party and Sokka being a hard man to find… there are so many possibilities.

Zuko groans and flops over in frustration. He should just say something and get it over with. He opens the app, wondering if he should make another account. Contacting a hot guy with your musical theatre stan account seems like social suicide, but Sokka already learned he was a giant nerd at the party so who’s he trying to fool. Plus the jock seemed interested despite how awkward and grumpy he had been so...

He changes his profile picture to a picture of the blue spirit, hoping Sokka will realize who it is based on that. He types the handle written on the paper into the search bar with shaky fingers.

“I should stop being so dramatic. Just say hi. Stop panicking.” he chastises himself out loud, taking a deep breath and clicking the profile that pops up.

It’s definitely Sokka. Those beautiful blue eyes stare at him from several pictures of the other teen hanging out with the soccer team, his friends, and his family. There’s one at the top that catches his eye. 

It’s Sokka and the girl from his history class… Soki maybe? No, that’s not right… Suki. Sokka and Suki and posed together and Zuko feels his breath leave him. They look like a couple, standing with their arms wrapped around each other smiling at the camera. He quickly closes out of the app, a flush covering his good side.

Anger and humiliation rush over him. Why had the athlete’s friends tricked him into thinking he had a chance? Why had he believed that they were genuinely trying to help him when they literally openly despise him? God, he really is so stupid. This is what happens when you show weakness. This is what happens when you open yourself up to things

“I said I was giving up on this and this is why!” he grumbles to himself, flopping over onto the bed and sprawling out. “I’m so dumb. He talked to me once at a party months ago. Why did I decide that meant something?” he glares at the ceiling as he yells at himself.

He’s been alone for so long. He’s not sure why that’s becoming so stupidly difficult for him now. 

He tries to go to sleep but every time he drifts off for a moment, nightmares wake him back up. The fact that this stupid situation has him upset enough for the nightmares to come back has him seething. 

It’s not as if Sokka actually led him along. He had no reason to think the teen would wait on a mysterious masked guy he met at a party for months. Sokka is hot, funny, and kind. He could have anyone, and the pretty, strong, and smart Suki is much more suited for the boy. Eventually, Zuko just gives up on sleep and spends the rest of the night scrolling through the internet in an attempt to distract himself.

Uncle notices immediately the next morning when he stumbles out of his room looking like death and looks at him in concern. 

“Not a word.” he hisses, heading straight for the coffee maker.

“Of course not nephew. As long as you are feeling alright.” Iroh smiles into his tea. Zuko just glares “That was a word.” 

Uncle just laughs heartily. “I suppose it was. Now let me drive you to school my boy, you’re far too sleepy to be on the road.”

Zuko goes to protest but then shrugs. He wouldn’t mind a ride honestly. 

“Yeah okay.” he agrees with a huff, massaging the bridge of his nose where a headache is starting to settle. 

Life really hates him. 

_______

“Zuko, now that you’ve been done with your physical therapy for a while and no longer need the hospital, I think it’s time we return to my tea shop.”

Zuko blinks and nods “It makes no difference to me.”

The closest thing he’d had to a friend on the island despite living here for two years is his therapist who is paid to talk to him. He’s hardly broken up over the idea of moving. He’ll miss the beaches of Ember island.

Iroh sighs and takes his nephew’s hands in his own. “I’m going to enroll you in the local school.” 

Zuko flinches back “Wh-What?” 

Iroh nods “It would be good for you.” “But Uncle…” Zuko trails off in fear “I can’t”

His Uncle sighs. “Why not Zuko? Why are you so afraid to be around kids your own age.”

Zuko trembles, looking around the apartment he’s been sharing with his uncle. He stares at the teapot he purchased for the old man’s birthday this year.

“Uncle I’m” his voice cracks “I’m bad. If I’m around other kids I’ll have bad thoughts again.”

His Uncle blinks at him in confusion “Nephew I’m afraid I do not understand. What kind of thoughts could you be so afraid of?” 

Zuko glares at him “I can’t tell you. You’ll make me go, just like father did.”

Iroh shakes his head. “I would never abandon you. Even if you lost your path and hurt people, killed people even, I would be by your side.”

Tears well up in Zuko’s eyes “No- you don’t understand. You’ll hate me.”

Uncle meets Zukos eyes and wraps him in one of his hugs, which Zuko always winds up melting right into. “Ever since my son died Zuko I’ve-” Zuko shakily tries to pull away “You don’t have to say it.” Iroh pulls him back into the hug “I do. I’ve seen you as my own son Zuko. Nothing you could ever do could make me hate you.”

Zuko pulls back and looks at the floor “I know Uncle…” he takes a deep breath and clenches his eyes shut “I-I’m gay Uncle.” He braces himself, waiting for his Uncles reaction. There is only silence and he cracks an eye open.

Uncle looks furious and his heart drops. Some part of him had hoped for acceptance- he’s so stupid. 

“Do not mistake my anger at being aimed towards you Zuko.” Iroh says tensely “It is my brother I am angry at. Of all the things for him to have hurt you over, this is the last thing I would have expected.”

Zuko blinks “So you don’t hate me?”

Iroh nods and hugs him again “Of course I don’t nephew. There is nothing wrong with how you feel. There is  _ nothing  _ wrong with love.”

Zuko hugs his uncle back fiercely. “Thank you.”

______

Zuko sighs as Iroh drops him off at their home. “I’ll see you when I come in for my shift Uncle,” he mumbles, climbing out of the car tiredly. 

Iroh hums, “I think I’ll take the night off actually my boy. It’s been too long since we stayed in and played Pai Sho.”

Zuko looks at him gratefully and nods. A night in sounds great. 

All day he’s been thinking about his life before his Uncle and how much Iroh changed his life, just by being there. Even when Zuko was angry at the world and lashing out, Iroh was there. 

He may not have friends, but he has his Uncle, so he’s okay. 

“That sounds great.” 

The two go inside and fall into easy conversation. Zuko feels the sadness of having lost his chance with Sokka fall away as he allows himself to be distracted by his Uncle. 

Iroh did always know how to cheer him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, we'll learn Sokka's pov of everything that happened in this chapter.


	3. Come On, Stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka can't get the masked guy from the party out of his head, but he hardly has time for the hopelessly romantic thoughts that plaque his head when Jet and his new minion Zuko won't leave him and his friends alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The format of this chapter mirrors the last one but this time it's about Sokka instead of Zuko. I wanted them both to have well fleshed out backstories within this modern au that work with their personalities, so I hope I succeeded. 
> 
> I'm actually somewhat happy with how this fic is turning out over all. It's not great or anything, but it's probably my best work. It's definitely my most well planned work. 
> 
> Next chapter comes the reveal <3333 For now enjoy Sokka

Sokka stares at the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling that his mom got him for his 7th birthday and does a mental inventory of his family in his head.

Katara hasn’t spoken a word in over a week. 

Dad has barely left his room since they left the hospital.

Bato is doing his best to hold their family together.

Mom is dead. 

It doesn’t feel true. Like he’s going to wake up any minute and his mom and dad will be rushing around the house trying to prepare for the day and mom will ask “Sokka did you just wake up?” and he’ll shake his head and they’ll both know he’s lying but he’ll still get ready in time anyways.

He doesn’t wake up though, and the house remains deathly silent. 

Bato walks in and gives him a watery smile, “Hey bud, you hungry?”

Sokka shakes his head and turns over, staring at the wall. 

Bato sighs and hovers in the doorway, clearly unsure of what to say “You know you can talk to me when you’re ready, right Sokka.” 

Sokka nods and makes a small noise of affirmation.

Bato leaves and he feels numb. 

Numb and trapped. He wants to run away from this house and the feeling of emptiness that resonates inside. He wants to run until his family goes back to normal.

‘I’m selfish.’ he thinks to himself in frustration. ‘I’m a big kid now. Kataras still little, and she had to watch mom-’ he cuts off his own thoughts with a sharp breath. 

He wants to comfort Katara and make her feel better, but he doesn’t know how. He doesn’t even know how to make himself feel better, which is stupid because he’s 10 whole years old. 

He thinks back to his birthday. Mom told him that now that he’s in the double-digits he’s starting to be all grown up. He’s never felt more like a baby than he does right now. He’s never longed to be held in his mom’s soft embrace like he does now.

A sob bubbles in his throat and he curls in on himself, almost as if he’s trying to block out the feelings of hurt and pain and grief from getting in.

There’s nothing he can do to keep those feelings away though, so he lays there sobbing silently in the silent house of a family that’s been torn apart by one man with a gun in a parking lot. 

________

Sokka wonders what the masked boy looked like under there.

He doesn’t really care, he’s not shallow after all, but he’s sure he must’ve been beautiful. His form had been thin, but firm, his muscles showing through the tight black shirt he’d been wearing after he’d given his hoodie to him.

And how romantic is that? The kind of thing that happens in tv shows and movies and if you’re the masked boy, plays. 

And how crazy is it that he’s fallen for a theatre nerd. 

Not one in the drama department at this school as a performer or a tech. Sokka has  _ checked _ .

That’s probably pretty creepy, but he can’t get the masked guy out of his head.

“Sokka!” Haru catches his attention and he jumps. “Huh?” he asks, and the long haired boy gives him a light glare. “Get your head out of your ass and pay attention to practice. Just because you’re the star of the team doesn’t mean you can space out all practice.” 

His friend’s words are a bit harsh, but his tone is concerned and Sokka gives him a thumbs up. “My bad! I stayed up wayyy too late last night.” he smiles at Haru’s glare “English essays don’t write themselves after all.”

Haru starts running off, but calls back “They also don’t wait until the last minute to write themselves!” and Sokka feigns hurt as he runs after him. 

Now that he’s paying attention he had started to lag behind everyone else on the track. Running laps is just so mind-numbing and it’s so easy to get distracted. 

He forces himself back to attention and starts to run again, speeding past his teammates who stick out their tongues. 

He loves the team. They all fuck with each other, but he’s lucky to play with such a good group of people. They’re all super talented and caring people. 

Their group strives to be a good example around school, openly showing their distaste for things like ableism, homophobia, and racism. They’re the star athletes, so a lot of other students admire and idolize them. It’s never been like a high school drama though. They’re not mean, they don’t bully other students, and they don’t only hang out with each other.

  
That kind of stuff is just stupid stereotyping for plot convenience.

Not that athletes can’t be assholes. Anyone can be an asshole. 

Take Jet for example. 

The guy is the biggest dick Sokka has ever had the displeasure of knowing.

Just the thought of him makes him run a little harder, anger pumping through his veins as he thinks about what that guy did to Katara. 

Sokka doesn’t hate many people, but Jet and anyone associated with him he despises. 

________

He clings onto his dad desperately. He’s not a child anymore, he’s in middle school and everything, so he can’t act like a stupid little sad kid now, but there’s some part of him that screams to hold on and not let go. If he doesn’t let go then his dad will have to stay here.

“Please don’t go dad.” he begs as he hugs him and his dad reaches down to ruffle his hair playfully. He’s just gotten his dad back- he’s finally been acting like himself after mom died, and now he wants to go too!

“I know this is hard to understand son, but I’m not leaving you really.” Hakoda kneels down “I’ll be back before you know it, and your Gran Gran will take great care of you while I’m away.”

Sokka shakes his head and his lip wobbles as he looks at his father’s military outfit. 

“Dad,” Katara says shakily, joining the hug hesitantly “Do you have to go?” 

Hakoda nods, “I know this is hard for you guys to understand, but I made this commitment a long time ago. I didn’t know…” he trails off for a moment “how things would turn out back then, but I have to go.” he hugs them both tight. 

“I’ll be back before you even know it,” he assures them and both siblings lean into their father and allow themselves to cry.

Eventually, they must break apart though, and as his father climbs into the car Sokka feels a tinge of bitterness in his gut. 

He brushes it aside in favor of stepping up for the family he has left.

Katara had been the one to pull their family back together after mom left even though she had been the one forced to witness her murder. Sokka had been weak then, but he’s determined to stay strong for his family this time. 

He helps his Gran Gran as much as he can and looks out for Katara until she starts yelling at him to leave her alone, and even then he keeps watch of his baby sister as best as he can.

He’s determined to not lose any more people he loves.

______

“God Sokka, what did you do?” Katara flops onto his bed and Sokka blinks. 

“Come in I guess,” he huffs, spinning around in his chair to face his sister, “and what are you even talking about?”

Katara groans, “Jet’s new minion Zuko is after you.”

Sokka blinks in confusion, ‘I haven’t even had anything to do with them in ages,” he tries to think back to any interactions he might’ve had with the new kid and comes up blank. “I’ve never even spoken to Zuko.”

Another groan comes from his sister and she kicks the air in frustration. “I wish they’d just leave us all alone!”

Sokka nods, hiding his anger as best he can at the fact that one of Jet’s people is bothering Katara, or even anywhere near Katara for that matter.

“I thought I got Jet to fuck off for good last time, to be honest.” he sighs, thinking back to the threats he’d hissed into Jets ear in the hallway that evening at the beginning of the school year after he’d found out the guy had been put in a class with Katara.

His sister just sighs “Wishful thinking.” 

Sokka nods and rubs the bridge of his nose. 

“I can’t even figure out what he wants with you? He just waits around for you and when me and the gang show up he flees.”

Sokka scrunches up his face. “Isn’t that the guy who got in that big fight in your history class.”

Katara nods, “It was terrifying. I thought him and Jet were going to kill each other! Then I see them just talking like it never happened a few days later.” 

“They probably enjoy brawling. Doing it in public probably adds to the thrill.”

Katara hums in agreement and bitterly adds, “It’s not as if we don’t already know Jet is a violent piece of shit,”

Sokka’s eyes soften and he smiles at Katara “Indeed he is. Let’s just try to stay away from whatever they’re trying to get us involved in.”

Katara nodded “We’ll try.”

_____

This is easier said than done when the new guy changes the rules!

They’ve been successfully avoiding the guy and defusing the situation, Sokka working hard to stay away from the dude, when he just comes up to their table in the middle of lunch!

This is not the game they’ve been playing and Sokka does not appreciate Jet changing the rules. His eyes flit around the cafeteria for the brown-haired boy chewing on his stupid leaf, but he doesn’t find the smirking gaze anywhere. 

With a growl he turns to the new guy who is essentially no better than a minion, hence why that’s all Sokka will call the dude in his head. 

Now that he’s up close to the dude he can’t help but think that he’s really hot.

His hair is shaggy, but Sokka can tell the dark locks would be soft to the touch. He briefly considers what it would be like to run his hands through it while gazing at those exotic golden eyes, closing in for a kiss to those soft pink lips, running his hands along the delicate but strong pale skin and-  **WoaHhh there Sokka, reel it in** .

He turns red, glad not for the first time that mind-reading is not a thing, because how embarrassing was that!

“Hey! My sister says you’ve been bothering her!” he spits out as the guy opens his mouth to say something. Zuko seems to wilt at that but tries to speak again. Sokka absolutely does not want to hear it though.

They’re not playing whatever game this is.

A growl escapes him as he remembers that hot or not, this guy is with Jet, and Sokka can never forgive that. Not after what Jet did.

“You leave us alone. I know you think you’re real tough cause you have that big scary freaky scar, but I’m not scared of you. I’ll take you any day and win, so piss off.”

Zuko blinks, staring at him dumbly for a few moments before nodding and scampering off. He sees what Katara meant about the dude just fleeing like a cornered animal so easily. It’s hard to connect that image with the mental image he’s had until now of the guy brawling with Jet in the middle of a class.

“What a weirdo.” Toph huffs and everyone makes noises of agreements.

“I can’t figure out what his angle is, to be honest.” Katara hums, “Usually Jet isn’t so crafty, but whatever plan he has this time, he’s playing the long game.”

Sokka sighs at the idea of Jet getting creative with his bullshit. As if his life wasn’t hard enough when Jet was incapable of subtlety at all.

He buries tugs on the strings of the masked boy’s hoodie and wishes that he was here. Maybe he’s putting too much faith into what is essentially a stranger, but he bets the masked guy wouldn’t be okay with Jet’s bullshit. 

He bets the masked guy would be hella dramatic and righteous about his anger towards Jet and all the crap the guy does to innocent people. 

He takes in a breath to calm himself and hopes the masked guy will reveal himself soon. 

_____

9th grade is off to a rough start if Sokka is being honest.

To start the summer off, his father was shot in the leg. He’s fine now, but the wound was enough to get his dad a slight limp and an honorable discharge. 

Sokka is overjoyed to have his dad back home, between the hospital and physical therapy, he and Katara aren’t fully moved back into their childhood home until about two weeks before he was meant to be starting high school, which is stressful enough without such a hectic move. 

To make matters worse, three days before school he’s going through his stuff and he realizes he’s lost his handwritten summer assignment for English class, meaning he has to redo an entire summers worth of work in a few days and he can’t even ask for help because he doesn’t live with Gran Gran anymore and he doesn’t want to seem irresponsible to his father this soon after he’s come home!

He finishes the summer out hunched over a desk anxiously scribbling into the packet, and he’s still up all night before the first day of school to get it finished in time. 

Then he gets to school and realizes he misread his schedule because he’s not used to the whole A-B day thing, and he doesn’t even have English today.

So he’s sleep-deprived, annoyed, and looks like a complete disaster.

When he walks into his engineering class and sees a dark-skinned girl with beautiful white hair and striking blue eyes all of that melts away. 

He rushes over and takes a seat next to her, flashing her what he hopes is a winning smile.

“Hi there,” his voice cracks slightly and he winces, trying to play it off “Sokka. 

She gives him a soft smile, ”I’m Yue. It’s nice to meet you.” 

It’s more formal than he’s used to but he just smiles goofily, “So uhh,” he meets her eyes for a moment but looks away. She’s too beautiful and it makes him nervous. 

“We’re in class together-” mentally he slaps himself, way to go captain obvious! “-So we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. I was thinking we could maybe-” he swallows nervously “-do an uhh, activity together.”

She blinks and lets out a surprised laugh that enchants Sokka because everything about this girl enchants him, “Do an activity together?” she giggles and he nods nervously. 

She laughs again “So like a date?” 

He turns bright red but nods again stiffly. 

She nods back “That sounds fun, but you have to pick the activity.” 

Sokka grins wider than he thought possible.

Maybe high school isn’t off to such a bad start after all. 

______

“You’ve been in a strange mood lately” Hakoda remarks as Sokka helps cook dinner. The teen flushes and turns to face the boiling water, staring at the noodles intently.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Hakoda laughs, “It’s okay if you like someone kid,” and Sokka turns even redder. “Dad!” he whines, still staring at the boiling noodles like his life depends on it.

Hakoda is smiling at him, he can feel it. It’s all soft and knowing. “I’m glad that you’re getting back out there again Sokka.” his father admits hesitantly, “I know how hard it can be to lose the person you love,” Sokka tenses a bit, “but I’m so happy to see you start to move on.”

Sokka stirs at the pasta and turns towards his dad hesitantly “Dad, umm-” he hesitates, unsure of how to ask politely. He stands there for a long moment before giving up on being proper. “Have you started to, well not move on but-” he rubs at the back of his neck “You and Bato are seeing each other right?”

His dad jumps a bit and Sokka thinks his dad might actually be blushing a bit, “Umm, yes son. We were going to sit you and your sister down and explain soon. We just wanted to wait for a good moment.”

Sokka nods, “We’ve both suspected for a little while now,” he admits “We… well at first we were confused, and a little hurt, but I get it now.”

He thinks of Yue, and the grace with which he did everything, the striking blue eyes that were so filled with kindness, and how stupidly attracted he was to her intelligence. She was so amazing, and he can never hope to replace what they had. 

He also thinks of the masked boy. He barely had a chance to get to know him but he feels as if there is something drawing them together. He never got to see his face, but the passionate way he spoke about things, the dry humor that managed to sneak laughter out of Sokka without him even knowing, the easy way the time passed when he was around him.

They aren’t the same feelings, not by a long shot, but that doesn’t make his feelings for one less valid or important. His heart is big enough to care for two people and his fathers is the same.

“I really get it dad.” he says a bit quieter and there is a somber silence in the kitchen for a moment as the two men reflect on all that they’ve lost. 

Hakoda suddenly pulls them out of it, “So, tell me about her!”

Sokka flushes and suddenly realizes he’s never bothered to come out to his father as bisexual, “Well actually it’s a him.”

He’s not actually worried about acceptance, but his voice wobbles a bit as nerves suddenly smack into him.

His father brushes right over it though “Right right, then tell me about him.”

Sokka lets out a slight breath. He really had known his father would be accepting, but his easy acceptance still fills him with warmth.

“Well we met at that Haloween party,” he begins, “Everyone thinks I’m crazy. I didn’t even get his name- I don’t know what he looks like even! But there’s something there.” 

He’s sure of it.

“I doubt I’ll ever see him again. I can’t figure out who it was for the life of me, but he gave me this hoodie,” he gestures to the hoodie that he’s wearing.

His father hums thoughtfully, “I’d wondered where you got that thing. It’s not your usual style.”

Sokka nods, “I know its stupid, I shouldn’t get attached to someone I barely know, but I feel like we had a connection. He really seemed to get me, and he was such a dork but he was passionate and funny and caring. I mean he gave me his jacket because I was cold because I decided to go outside without a shirt!” 

Hakoda pauses what he’s doing to look at his son, “It’s not stupid. I won’t lie to you, I don’t know how realistic it is that anything will come of this. Winter break is coming up in a few days and that was in October, but your feelings aren’t stupid” 

His father smiles.

“Besides, crazier things have happened. I mean, your mother was the cashier at a fast food place by my dorms back in college. I went there every day and could never get the courage to talk to her, and when she stopped working there I thought I’d missed my chance.”

Sokka smiles at the story. He’s heard it before, but hearing about his mother is always a breath of, not so much fresh air as an old comforting air he hasn’t felt in too long.

“Then, the next year I got an internship through my college and she was working in a fairly high up position in the company. I saw her and knew I had to at least try or I would regret it forever.” he smiles at Sokka. 

“I got lucky. I’m not saying you will too, but I am saying that if you get a second chance, take it. It means there’s something really special there.”

Sokka nods and pleads with the universe to give him this once thing. All he’s asking for is a second chance with the masked boy. All he wants is for this to not be another thing lost to him forever.

______

He sits in front of the grave, a cold night breeze blowing his hair in his face. He didn’t tie it up today. Yue said she thought he looked cute with his hair all messed up once. He had told her he looks goofy but had started wearing it down more often.

He’s distantly aware that he’s crying, but it feels far away in a way that feels familiar. 

‘Everyone goes away.’ he thinks to himself and he clenches his fists, the loose dirt beneath his fingers shifting. ‘Everyone leaves you.’

He knows that’s not fair. It’s not Yue’s fault that she got sick. She fought hard and Sokka was there every step of the way. He’d sat by her bedside and told Yue that they would get married, rambled about all the things they would do when they were old, knowing full well that she never would.

His chest hurts with anger and sadness. He hates this world where a beauty like Yue’s can be snuffed out for seemingly no reason. 

He looks at the stars and imagines Yue must be one now. She was always too ethereal to belong here. She was a special kind of person. Kind, funny, and real. 

Sokka thinks maybe he was lucky to have had her at all, even if their time had felt so short. 

He tries to feel grateful for that time though, even if it does nothing to stop the flow of bitterness rushing below his skin and consuming him. 

He’s sick and tired of grief. He’s tired of people leaving him. 

He begs the universe to give him just one person who will stay. Who can stay.

Just one.

_______

Sokka grins as he laces up his skates. He’s always been a horrible ice skater, but Suki is promising to teach him some neat tricks that she  _ swears  _ he’ll be able to do.

“I’m not gonna lie, I’m suspicious.” he stands shakily. 

Suki laughs at him openly, “You know, for someone who’s always lived in such a cold climate, one would think this was your first time on the ice.” She steps onto the ice pond casually and Sokka follows hesitantly.

“Shut up. You and I both know I’ve tried to get better at this every year since we were kids.” which honestly, makes it more embarrassing how terrible he is at skating. He can go around the pond well enough, just like every little kid in town can. 

In the winter ice skating and going to the mall are basically the only things to do around here. Unless you drive an hour and a half over to the city, there’s pretty limited entertainment. This means pretty much every kid is a decent ice skater. 

Except for Sokka, who genuinely cannot do this shit!

Suki shakes her head “Look, we’re just gonna do some really simple tricks.” 

Sokka doubts this and as Suki leads him through twists he is proven right. Not really, what they’re doing it pretty basic, but he’s proven right in his head.

It feels hard!

He prefers when it gets a little warmer and the ponds thaw out and people start fishing. Plus, every spring there’s the festival which is the only exciting thing to happen here. It’s not actually that exciting, but there are performers, fireworks, costumes, and food.

Plus there’s just the general atmosphere of excitement and the entire town coming out at once. Sokka loves the feeling of community. There’s also a tradition of wearing masks…

Holy fuck. There’s an entire festival where people wear masks in this town. How had he not thought of that before now! He’d been so caught up in figuring out who was under there, but if he finds the blue mask guy at the festival he can just ask! No, beg! 

‘I shouldn’t get my hopes up. He might not come.’ He reminds himself. ‘Plus I should actually pay attention to Suki probably’ 

“Just cross your feet over each other like this.” she demonstrates, and it looks easy when she does it, but when he tries he clumsily trips onto the ground. 

Suki reaches out and catches him. He’s lucky she’s so strong, and he says as much, earning him a proud smile and an arm around his shoulder.

“Let’s take a break. There’s something I wanted to ask you anyways.”

Sokka hums, and they go and plop down in a pile of snow, leaning back. They’re bundled up enough that the cold really only seeps into their butts and after skating around, that just feels good. 

“What did you want to talk about?”

She sighs and looks at the sky. It’s bright and there are only a few clouds. 

“Sokka… I know you like that guy in the mask from that party back on Halloween,” she begins and Sokka nods. 

“And I know that it’s been hard for you, with Yue and everything,” she hesitates and Sokka swallows. “Yeah…” he mumbles, not really wanting to talk about that right now.

“But now that you’re starting to move on, I know you like that guy but since you can’t find him I was thinking we should go out on a date.” 

Sokka blinks, shock hitting him. “What?” he asks eloquently and Suki sighs. “Surely you’ve noticed I like you Sokka?”

He shakes his head because, no, he had not noticed that.

“Oh…” she frowns “Do you want to go on a date or not?”

She’s clearly nervous, but Suki has never been a weak person. She won’t let him see that she’s terrified to be asking him this.

His heart hurts for her. She’s one of his best friends, and looking back he can see where some of that could have seemed romantic. 

“Suki I’m-” he starts and she closes her eyes, scooting away “Fuck, I’m sorry Sokka, I misunderstood-” he shakes his head “Suki, no, I’m so sorry I just don’t view you like that.”

She sighs, “I should’ve seen this coming.” 

It’s slightly bitter and he flinches back “I’m sorry.”

She takes in a breath “No, I’m sorry that was rude. You’ve done nothing wrong Sokka. I really hope we can still be friends? We don’t ever even need to talk or think about this again.”

Sokka nods “Of course Suki, you really are great though. Someone will be incredibly lucky to have you.”

She nods and they lie there in silence for a while, until the sun starts to fade from view. 

What a way to start out winter break. 

Later that night when he gets home he scrolls through his own Instagram and winces at how coupley he and Suki look in several pictures. He’d just been thinking of those moments as friendly but now he can’t help but feel that he unwittingly led her along.

They just wouldn’t be a good fit, Sokka thinks.

He’ll archive the pictures eventually, but doing it now would give off the wrong message. He still values Suki and loves her as a friend. He doesn’t want to do anything that makes it seem like he’s trying to end that.

_______

Sokka is going to kill him. He’s going to rip that boys head off and feed it to wolves. He’s going to hack his bits up and grind them into juice and dumb it over him. He’s going to- he doesn’t even know because he’s too pissed to come up with any more disgusting methods of death for Jet.

How  _ dare _ that scumbag hurt his sister.

Katara had started dating Jet in November and Sokka had been suspicious of the boy. He’s been smooth, but something about him had rubbed him the wrong way. He’d expressed his concern to Katara but she had been enraged, saying Sokka was being jealous, and that just because Jet is a Junior dating a  _ freshman _ doesn’t make him a bad guy.

Sokka tries to get over it, and he allows Katara and Jet to date without any issues from him, even if on the inside he was suspicious.

When his baby sister came running home one cold night in December, shivering and crying, with a red mark on her cheek that will bruise, he feels rage unlike anything he’s ever felt before.

“How dare he!” he hisses, rushing towards his sister. 

Hakoda is washing dishes in the kitchen and hears the commotion, walking around to the entryway and taking in a shocked gasp at the sight of his daughter. 

“Who?” the man asks and Katara sobs out “Jet-” shakily and Sokka reaches out to wrap her into a hug which she leans into immediately. 

She’s trembling and scared and Sokka is going to  _ kill him. _

“I’m so stupid-” she exclaims watery, “He’s a bad person- he steals from people and hurts them-” she hiccups and Sokka rubs comforting circles into her back. 

“He tried to get me to- to go mug people with him! I was- I was angry so I yelled at him about- about mom.” Sokka hugs her together and lowers them to the floor. 

“I screamed at him that someone like him killed my mom and he got mad, but I didn’t think he would-” she pauses, her hand going towards the bruise. “I broke up with him and left. I should’ve called you but I was so upset I just ran home.”

Sokka hasn’t heard Katara this shaken in years. Not since what happened to their mother.

“It’s okay Katara, Shhh.” he soothes, and a larger pair of arms wrap around them. Their dad joins them on the floor, huddling up with them. 

“We can press charges.” he assures Katara “He won’t get away with this.”

The girl shakes her head “We don’t have that kind of money. Jet’s foster family is well off and his foster moms a lawyer. They’ll have the best legal team possible.” she laughs “He hates the rich so much, but he has no problem with taking advantage of all that money at his disposal.”

Katara sounds so upset and Sokka is going to kick Jet’s ass. 

______

“We were wrong about Zuko!” Katara flings open his door and throws herself onto the floor dramatically and Soka sighs.

“One of these days you’re going to barge in here and I’m going to be jacking off Katara, and then you’re going to get all grossed out but it’s going to be your own fault for not knocking…” he pauses “Wait, what? I thought you and Aang were going on a date? How’d you wind up around Zuko?”

Katara rolls her eyes on the floor, pulling herself into a sitting position and Sokka slides down there with her, “If you would shut up I would explain.”

Sokka does so.

“He was like me. He got tricked by Jet and all his… Jettyness.”

Sokka raises an eyebrow “How do you know?”

Katara smiles slightly “Me and Aang went to this little tea shop over in the Sundance shopping center, the one all the old people rave about.”

Sokka rolls his eyes. That’s such an Aang like place to go.

“Zuko was working there with his sweet old Uncle, and his Uncle thought we were Zuko’s friends, and we all just kind of went with it. We wound up talking to him for a bit and holy shit he’s the most awkward person I’ve ever met,” she admits with a sigh.

“We said something to him about Jet and he got super worked up and started rambling about how he’s not actually with Jet and he didn’t know what he was like when he was hanging out with him.” 

Sokka hums. It’s not completely unrealistic but it seems so convenient. “And you trust him? Just from that?”

Katara nods, “Trust me, if you saw him you would believe it too. I thought he was going to explode at the idea of being associated with Jet.”

That’s all well and good but… “Then why has he been harassing us for the last few months? He kept bothering you all the time trying to get to me for some reason?”

Katara has turned a bit red, “Well, I think he just wanted to talk to you Sokka... “

Sokka looks at her in confusion “What about?”

She shrugs trying to look innocent before suddenly smirking.

“He’s cute right?”

Sokka flushes “Wh-What?”

Her smirk turns into an evil grin and Sokka wants to dive off a cliff immediately.

“You think he’s cuutteee.” she hums happily and then leaves the room, ignoring his protests as she goes. 

Sokka huffs and falls onto his back, staring up at his glow in the dark star stickers. 

Yes, Zuko is cute, and hot, and sexy, and handsome, but Sokka doesn’t know him at all! And with the spring festival coming up in about a month he has a chance to see someone he made a real mental connection with.

If that doesn’t work out, maybe he’ll see if he gets along with Zuko, but until then he’s going to keep trying for the masked boy. 

Sokka cares more about personality than looks after all…

But if he looks at Zuko(and Zuko's ass) a little more than he probably should once school gets back in session that’s no one’s business but his own. 


	4. The Fool Who Has Fallen for You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jet makes an appearance and secrets are revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it my friends~ the last chapter of the only fic I've ever written that actually got uploaded in a reasonable amount of time. 
> 
> I was thinking about making some sequel oneshots for this, would anyone be interested in that? Just little fluffy things. I was thinking of writing stuff like Zuko meeting Hakoda and Sokka meeting Iroh, Zuko telling Sokka about how he got his scar, them going off to college, etc. No real drama, just fluff.   
> If anyone would actually want to read that leave me a comment :)
> 
> If any of you have any ideas for another Zukka fic that would also be super cool. I don't have any solid ideas atm but I want to write more of these two so if you have any thoughts hit me up :)))  
> (I do read all the comments I'm just stupid awkward and don't know how to reply to them. I appreciate all of them and I look like a dumbass when I read them cause they make me rlly happy. Ya'll are so nice <333
> 
> Anyways, time to cut off my rambling so you can actually read the story :) Enjoy the ending

The first he hears of the festival is from his Uncle asking “Have any of your school friends invited you to go to the festival with them yet Nephew?” during a particularly slow shift one Thursday evening.

He’d blinked in confusion, “What festival?”

Uncle had hummed, “I guess not then. There is a festival that comes to this town every spring. Everyone wears masks- even the performers. There are lots of interesting traditions since the festival has always been culturally influenced by the Asian community that moved here years ago.” Iroh shrugs “I always enjoy myself.” 

Zuko’s mind is hung up on the mask bit. He can go in his blue spirit mask and talk to Sokka. He can explain that he’s been thinking about him nonstop and he can reveal himself. 

Then the fear of rejection sets in. His face falls. He’s not what Sokka wants, he already knows that. He has a girlfriend who’s pretty, strong, likable, and funny. 

“There’s also food!” Uncle boasts after a beat of silence and Zuko gives him a smile. “We can go together Uncle.” 

Iroh nods, “Of course Zuko, but don’t hesitate to run off with your friends once we’re there. This old man can find ways to amuse himself.” he winks and Zuko cringes.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that.”

Iroh smiles innocently and shrugs. 

Zuko can’t stop thinking about the possibility of seeing Sokka with his identity concealed again. He knows nothing good can come of it, but that hope that had been shot when he’d seen Sokka’s Instagram is back. 

He reminds himself that he’s being foolish, that nothing good will come of this. Sokka will reject him, probably not even softly going off their previous interactions. 

‘I shouldn’t do this’ he tells himself, but the next day he catches Sokka’s eyes by accident in the hallway and the boy smiles hesitantly at him. He speeds up, a flush spreading over his face, but his mind is made up. He has to talk to him. He’s desperate for it.

______

Sokka hates waking up in the morning, but today he’s been up since dawn. Excitement buzzes under his skin and he can barely sit still. 

He’s getting on Katara’s nerves already with all his bouncing in place but she can deal because he’s the one who convinced their dad that she’s old enough to go to the festival unsupervised(not that Sokka won’t wind up hanging out with her most of the day anyway, but it’s nice to not technically have to).

He crams his breakfast in his mouth quickly and then rushes off to shower. He doesn’t want to stink if he manages to talk to the masked guy again. 

He styles his hair far more carefully than usual, looking as if he’s going on a date rather than to a festival where he might run into his crush, whose identity he doesn’t even know.

He contemplates how he reached such a strange point in his life as he leaves the bathroom, grabbing his backpack and mask from his desk where he’d left them the day before.

Sokka is the plan guy, so he’d obviously never go to an all-day event without a bag containing first aid supplies, water, some snacks, and a few other essentials. 

Katara says he’s almost more of a mother hen than she is, what with the purse full of enough supplies to survive an apocalypse but he’s just prepared! Plus it is not a purse! There’s nothing wrong with having a manly bag full of perfectly reasonable supplies. 

Sure enough, when he gets downstairs and sees the bag she laughs at him and he rolls his eyes. This stuff could totally come in handy, and the bag is super manly and very fashionable, and super un-purse-like.

“I think you’ve packed more than you did last year and when we went to the zoo combined.” she snorts and he huffs. “When you cut your finger on that railing you weren’t complaining about the band-aid.” 

She rolls her eyes at that “No, but you had 4 different rolls of bandages, disinfectant wipes, tweezers, anti-septic spray, CPR masks for adults and children, and gloves. Why do you need all that to go to the zoo?”

He flushes and pouts. “You never know what could happen. What if someone with herpes went into cardiac arrest? Then you’d be really glad I had the masks and gloves.”

She gives him a look. “I think you just want to flex the fact that you went through lifeguard training. We get it, you’re CPR certified and all that.”

“Well the certificate actually expired, remember… That’s why I had to find a new job for this summer… remember.” 

“Right.” she keeps looking at him “Well, let’s go Mr. plan guy.”

He ignored her sarcasm, which really, he’s supposed to be the sarcastic one not her so how dare she try to steal his thing.

He can’t stay pouting for long with the possibility of seeing his masked crush again looming over him though, and a goofy smile slips on his face as he drives to the festival to meet up with his and Katara’s friends. A love song blasts on the speakers and he sings along.

______

Not that Zuko doesn’t enjoy spending time with his Uncle, but he is getting frustrated. Uncle is picking up on it too, and he gives Zuko a soft smile “You know, I don’t mind if you go off to look for your friend’s Nephew. Just text me when you’re ready to head home.”

Zuko shakes his head. “I don’t even know if he’s- they’re- if they’re here.” he stumbles over his words and ignores Uncle’s knowing smile. “Stop doing that.” he huffs, gesturing to the man’s face. “Doing what?” he plays dumb and Zuko growls. 

“You know what!” he takes a breath, his face softening “Anyways, I don’t know if they’re here and we’re barely friends, so I’ll just keep an eye out.” which he’s been doing all day, but there’s been no sign of Sokka anywhere. Surely the boy came? He must just be barely missing him, but it’s mid-afternoon, and him and Uncle have been wandering around eating strange food and watching performers all day!

Not that he isn’t having fun, because again, he loves his Uncle and he loves spending time with him. He just finally has a chance of spending time with someone a little closer in age than his elderly father figure, and he can’t find him!

For a town so small there seems to be such a large sea of people, and the stalls seem to stretch out over the entire town. Uncle says people come from the surrounding towns to see the festivities. 

“Shouldn’t we be selling tea?” he’d asked when they’d gotten here and Uncle laughed, “Probably, but you only live once Nephew. We have plenty of money, we might as well enjoy our time on this earth.”

It isn’t even a proverb, but his tone had made it sound like one. Zuko scowls again at the memory. Not everything needs to be a proverb.

“If you insist Nephew, but don’t hesitate to go looking for him.” Zuko starts to nod but then glares “Them! Them! Not him. Stop looking all knowingly at me.”

Iroh just hums and they keep walking. 

“Why are you trying so hard to get rid of me anyways.” he huffs, his eyes flitting through the crowd. Iroh laughs and simply says “I’m not, you just seem distracted. I know how you can get when you’re on a mission and that’s clearly what’s happening here.”

Zuko flushes. He’s got him pinned, as usual, so he just doesn’t respond. They continue to walk through the festival, Uncle greeting all of his friends as they come across them, and Zuko greeting those who he knows. There are a few of uncle’s friends who have their kids and grandkids who go to Zuko’s school in tow and he’s glad he has the mask to hide behind because he gets nervous around kids his own age.

Plus if Uncle found out how bad it’s gotten at school it would be bad. He doesn’t want to upset the man who’s done so much for him.

After a while, he catches sight of a familiar group and grins under the mask. He turns to Uncle who nods before he can even say a word, “Go spend time with your friends Zuko, like I said, text me when you’re ready to go.”

Zuko nods back and begins to make his way across the crowd to try and catch up with Sokka. 

He’s so close he could call out the boy’s name when suddenly he’s grabbed by the arm and yanked harshly behind a building. He tumbles the ground and blinks, disoriented. The mask came slightly loose and he reaches up to tighten it unconsciously.

He then looks up to see who grabbed him and finds a masked figure wearing a dark green hoodie tugged up over his head. “What the hell?” he spits, standing. ‘Show no fear.’ he chants to himself in his head as he looks head-on at his attacker.

The figure reaches up and yanks his own mask off, revealing a smirking Jet. 

He sags in relief. “Oh it’s just you. Get the fuck away from me.” he starts to shoulder past Jet but the other teen pushes him back angrily. 

“Don’t you dare just walk away from me!” 

Zuko scoffs “What do you even want? My money? I think I have a twenty on me,” but Jet’s expression doesn’t shift. He remains stony, angry in a colder way than Zuko is used to. 

“Don’t try me Zuko.” Jet growls, reaching into his hoodie pocket and pulling out… Zuko’s eyes widen. “Jet…” he says hesitantly, taking a step back and finding himself met with a cold wall. 

The knife glints in the sunlight and Zuko stares at it shakily. 

“You didn’t think I’d go this far did you?” a smug grin finds its way onto Jet’s face “You and I both know you came from money. You have to have more than $20 on you.”

Zuko shakes his head, “I don’t. I live with my Uncle and he isn’t wealthy. I haven’t seen the wealth you think I have in years-” Jet cuts him off by stepping forward to kick him harshly. Zuko attempts to dart under his leg and sprint away but Jet just kicks him again. 

With a grunt, Zuko glares “I don’t have anything more than pocket cash Jet.” 

Jet looks pissed for a second, but he then steels himself and shakes his head “I don’t even care. I just want to make you hurt you bastard.” he pulls the hood down and his brown hair is sticking up everywhere. “People like you and your family are the scum of this world. I’m sick of seeing you hurt everyone around you and taking all the benefits.” Jet growls “You aren’t even straight, but you have so much internalized homophobia I bet you’ll follow in daddy’s footsteps after you take over his company and fire everyone who doesn’t fit in with your ‘family values’” 

Zuko shakes his head “I’m not inheriting anything! I haven’t even spoken to my father in years-” “Stop lying!” Jet lashes forward and Zuko cries out in pain grasping at the cut on his arm, his shirt sleeve hanging loosely around the cut where both it and his skin have been sliced. 

Blood is dripping down his arm and Zuko looks at Jet in shock. “Stop this. Are you fucking crazy? You can’t kill me Jet!” except he’s not so sure Jet won’t.

The boy scoffs “No shit. I don’t want to go to jail.” he fiddles with the bloody knife “but I can hurt you. I bet you’re too much of a coward to tell anyone.”

Zuko is. He can’t tell Uncle about this. He’ll just have to make it through this and bandage himself up as best he can. 

He meets Jet’s eyes through the mask and tries to steel himself for the beating that’s soon to come, internally cursing the family he was cursed with for continuing to haunt him even after he’s escaped from their grasp.

________

Sokka watches some guy juggle fire with depleting interest. This was cool for the first 10 minutes or so but it’s getting stale. Aang is still completely enthralled though, so he devises an escape plan. 

“I’m gonna go get some fire flakes,” he says to Katara, who nods. “I might look around some too, so don’t wait up for me. Text me if you need anything.” She nods again. 

He separates from the group with a wave to Aang and a nudge to Toph, who punches him affectionately in return(and who other than Toph can affectionately punch someone???)

He can’t help but hope that he’ll run into the masked guy as he turns back to find that stand he’d seen on their way over here. He’s had no luck spotting him all day today. All he’s gained for his efforts to find the boy is Katara watching him suspiciously and asking him what he’s even looking for. 

It’s only 3 though, so he still has hope. 

As he’s walking his eyes catch on some movement back behind a building. He’s sure it’s just a cat or something, but he hesitantly walks over to the alleyway and his eyes widen. 

There’s the masked guy, standing defensively against the wall, and there’s… is that Jet? With a, holy  _ fuck  _ that is a knife!!!

He reacts without even really thinking, running forward and swinging his bag at Jet. It connects with the brown-haired boy’s head and he falls to the ground. Masked guy uses the distraction as an opportunity to rip the knife from Jet’s hand. 

Jet starts to stand up, yelling curses at Sokka who stares at him in disbelief. He’s always hated him, but he’s really fallen off the deep end to be attacking people at knife point in the middle of a festival. 

Masked guy runs forward, grabbing his hand- which holy shit they’re holding hand and now is NOT the time- and pulling him along.

They emerge into the crowd and masked guy keeps pulling him along. Sokka looks back and finds Jet following behind them, yelling for them to come back. 

Sokka follows masked guy as they dodge around couples and families in the crowd, impressed at the stamina of the dude. Sokka plays sports and even he’s getting winded. 

Finally, they duck behind a stall and Jet doesn’t notice, continuing into the crowd. 

They stand, brushing the dust off themselves. Sokka lifts his own festival mask off his face, revealing a tired grin. “Damn, that was insane.” he pants, running a hand through his hair. 

“No kidding!” masked guy exclaims, “What were you thinking rushing in there like that? He had a  _ knife _ ?” he sounds incredulous and Sokka flushes. 

“I wasn’t really thinking honestly.” he rubs the back of his neck “I just didn’t want him to do anything to you so I did the first thing that popped in my head.”

He can’t even see the dudes face but he can feel the look he’s getting. “A knife! Which he wasn’t afraid to use!” At that Sokka’s blinks, his eyes trailing down to the bloody arm.    
“Oh fuck! We need to get you to a hospital!”

Mystery boy shakes his head quickly at that. “No. I don’t need a hospital, it’s fine.” he grabs the arm protectively and Sokka sighs. “Fine, then at least let me patch it up.” 

Masked guy hesitates “It’s fine, I’m sure you have better things to do and you already saved me.”

Sokka rolls his eyes and grabs his hand- and aHHh they’re holding hands again but he needs to keep it together because he is not a 13-year-old girl- and begins to lead him along to the parking lot. 

“We’ll go to my car. It’s the most private it’s getting around here- creepy alleyways excluded but I’d rather avoid another run-in with Jet.”

Masked guy laughs a bit and Sokka smiles.

They walk hand in hand, falling into a light conversation. Sokka will wait until they’re alone in the privacy of his car to ask anything personal, like who are you and why can I not stop thinking about you every minute of the day? The light conversation still fills him with warmth. 

Masked guy is awkward as hell, but once Sokka gets him on a topic he cares about he rambles as if a dam burst. 

He’s listening to the guy ramble about why simply reading plays in school doesn’t do the art form justice when they arrive at the car. Sokka stops and the masked guy looks at him, tilting his head in confusion. 

Sokka nods at the car “This is mine.” he sticks his key in the lock and twists it twice. He then walks around to the back and pops the trunk open. He knows it’s not exactly a cool car or anything, but he actually likes having an SUV. Being able to sit in the trunk allows for more storage space, car picnics, and patching up random mysterious boys he gets crushes on after they get stabbed. 

(Seriously, what is his life?)

He climbs in and sits down, patting the space in front of him. Masked guy hesitantly climbs in and Sokka starts digging around for his first aid supplies- which take that Katara, they did come in handy today. 

“Wow.” the guy says as he pulls out the bandages and disinfectant wipes and spray, “You just carry that around?”

Sokka shrugs “I like to be prepared. Planning is kinda my thing.” he gestures at the wound “plus it came in handy today didn’t it.” 

Masked guy mulls this over and then nods, “Fair point.”

Sokka starts to wipe the blood off the guy’s arm, dabbing lightly on the wound. This earns a hiss from mask boy, but he remains otherwise silent. 

Sokka continues to tend to the wound, soaking in the comfortable silence between them. 

______

Zuko is panicking a little bit. He’s so close to Sokka, who is wrapping his arm so carefully, and his good side must be bright red under the mask. This is not how he imagined this going, but it’s not entirely unappreciated, even if he could do without the burning pain coming from his arm.

He’s got a high pain tolerance though. 

He swallows as Sokka finished wrapping the wound and looks at him expectantly. “It would be nice to get a name you know. So I can stop calling you stuff like ‘masked guy’ and ‘mystery boy’ in my head.”

Zuko squirms. He doesn’t want this to end yet. “You don’t like me.” he admits and Sokka raises a brow, “Sure I do?” the teen turns red, “I’ve actually been thinking about you a lot ever since Halloween. I don’t know if you’ve seen but I’ve kinda been wearing your hoodie a lot.”

Zuko nods, “I noticed. I… I know you think you like me but you don’t really.” he stares intently at his hands, “You think I’m a bad person. Maybe I am.” 

Sokka’s beautiful blue eyes are staring intently at him and he sighs. “I actually intended to tell you who I am today but now that it’s time I don’t really want to.” he snorts bitterly, “This is probably my only chance to at least try though, even if you’re going to hate me.”

Sokka shakes his head “I won’t. You’re definitely not Jet so there’s pretty much nothing you could be hiding under there that would make me hate you.” and he sounds so sure which makes this so much worse. 

Zuko takes a trembling hand to the mask and bites his lip, pulling it up and off his face slowly. Golden eyes meet surprised blue ones and he winces.

“Sorry,” he mumbles and looks away from Sokka. ‘He must be disgusted’ he thinks ‘Look at his face, he’s horrified that he ever helped you.’

Sokka’s face is looking increasingly distressed as the realization of who he’s been obsessing over for the last few months sets in and Zuko curls in on himself slightly, turning his scarred side away as if that will change how ugly he is. 

He feels more exposed than he has in years and he’s tense as he waits for Sokka to rage at him, steeling himself for the emotional pain he’s opened himself up to by being  _ stupid  _ and  _ naive _ . ‘I should really know better by now.’ he can’t help but think.

“Why are you apologizing? I’m the one who…” Sokka trails off and Zuko glances at him in confusion. “What do you mean why am I apologizing, I’m- well I’m me. You obviously didn’t want to talk to me and I… I mean I didn’t exactly plan any of this but I mean, still…” Zuko starts playing with his hair awkwardly. 

“Don’t apologize.” Sokka reaches forward and grabs his hand. Zuko tenses at that, shock clear on his face. “I’m the one who should apologize! I’ve been terrible to you! You didn’t even do anything except try to talk to me, probably because I flirted with you at a party- holy shit I’m so sorry.” the boy runs a hand through his hair.

Zuko blinks at that, not sure how to respond. People don’t apologize to him unless they’re Uncle, and Uncle is always apologizing for things he didn’t actually do so that’s not the same. 

“It’s uhh, it’s fine really. I didn’t mind. It’s not like it was anything new,” which only succeeds in making Sokka look guiltier which wasn’t his intention. “No seriously, I didn’t mind.” he tries to assure, but it doesn’t seem to be helping. 

“I can’t imagine why you would even talk to me, much less trust me like this” he gestures at his bandaged arm “after how I treated you… god, I was terrible.” Sokka looks so genuinely upset over this and Zuko squeezes his hand comfortingly. 

“I really didn’t mind. It’s not like my reputation was super great and you thought I was bothering your family.” Zuko may not have that kind of relationship with his family, but he would still be pissed if he found out someone was targeting his sister. She wouldn’t appreciate his concern obviously, but he would give it anyways, not that he’s seen her in years. He probably won’t see her ever again actually, which is both a relief and a serious bummer which he should probably stop thinking about. 

Sokka is staring at him, his face all scrunched up with guilt. Zuko takes a nervous breath and then leans in, pressing his lips to Sokka’s. The other boy tenses in shock, but then leans in and kisses back. 

It’s better than anything Zuko ever expected and is his first kiss now that he’s thinking about it. It’s warm and soft and feels so good. They pull apart slowly and Sokka smiles at him softly. “So you still want to be something with me? Even after how terrible I was?” 

Zuko nods quickly, “If you want to have something, even though I’m, well me.” Sokka frowns at that, “Don’t say that like it’s a bad thing.” to which Zuko scoffs. “Of course it’s a bad thing, I had to hide my face to get someone to even talk to me. I think that’s a sign that I’m not exactly good at these things.” 

Sokka looks guilty again and Zuko groans, about to go in for another kiss to get him to stop making that sad face when he realizes something.

“Aren’t you dating Suki?”

Sokka blinks “Huh?” 

Zuko nods, “She’s on your Instagram, I thought you were a couple.” 

Sokka just shakes his head “No. She actually asked me out recently, but it’s not like that, not that she isn’t amazing, I just don’t see her like that.” 

Zuko blinks and flushes. He got so upset over nothing. “Oh… So you’re single right?” Sokka nods, “I did just kiss you didn’t I? And we said we wanted to be a thing? I don’t do that with every strange masked guy I meet you know.” 

Zuko nods again “Right. Sorry, my mistake.” 

Sokka rolls his eyes, “God, you’re so awkward. I can’t believe I was so mean to you. If I’d let you get in a single word I’d have known you were way too easy to read to be part of some master plan of Jet’s” 

Zuko’s head tilts slightly (and Sokka thinks he might be in love because it’s even cuter when he can actually see Zuko’s stupidly hot face) “Master plan?” Sokka nods, guilt setting in again “Yeah. Katara’s had some trouble with that guy. Nothing involving knives thank god! But yeah, when you kept trying to talk to me we thought Jet was pulling something.” 

Zuko shakes his head “I hate Jet.” 

Sokka leans in and kisses him again, pulling away to murmur “I noticed when he was trying to stab you that you aren’t exactly besties.”

Zuko shuts him up with another kiss. 

“So we’re going to try this? Being a thing?” Sokka affirms when they pull apart again.

“Yes.” Zuko agrees “I’ve never uhh, dated anyone before but, I really want to. With you. Date you I mean. I really want to.”

Sokka laughs and pulls him in for yet another kiss, which is still a novel feeling for them both, and Zuko feels warm and happy, a part of him he hadn’t even known was empty filling itself. 

They pull apart and Sokka smiles “There’s still plenty of time left in the day,” he gestures to the festival, “Wanna go on a date?”

Zuko’s face breaks into a smile that softens his whole face, “Yeah. Can we buy me a new shirt somewhere though?” he holds up the ripped and bloodied fabric of the sleeve, “I feel like this might alarm some people.”

Sokka nods, “That’s probably a good idea.”

They walk towards the festival holding hands, smiling, and talking easily, and they both know then and there found the right person. 

~End~

**Author's Note:**

> Ty for reading. If you enjoyed my work I hope you will consider donating to the Black Lives Matter movement here:  
> https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
> 
> I completely understand if you do not have the money, I lost my job to Corona and wasn't able to donate much myself, but even if you can't donate please sign this petition.
> 
> https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/
> 
> Right now not speaking out against police brutality is the same as standing in defense of it. I know my platform here is small but I feel an obligation to use it. This is a deeply important issue that means the difference between life and death for so many people. I will not be leaving any racist comments up, so don't even bother leaving them.


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